According to the calendar, it's still spring. In north Texas, we've already experienced temperatures in the 80s and 90s for several weeks, so it surely FEELS like summer is here. No matter what the season may be called, it's been great weather for taking walks and riding bikes. One problem: not everyone in the Smith family owns a bike.
Liesey Lou suggested that a cruiser would make a wonderful graduation gift, and Miss Millie has been wanting to have a bike that actually was the correct frame size for her frame. We still needed to purchase a gift for our recent high school grad, and our youngest had long outgrown her bicycle. There was no doubt that we needed to go shopping, but first we had to do our homework. (Homework? Noooo! School's out.)
There are several brands (Schwinn, Huffy, Norco, Trek, Greenline, Nirve, and Electra) to consider, so it was hard to know where to begin our search. Our wheels were spinning as we were overwhelmed by too many options. After asking for input from those "in the know," we decided to go for the quality and flat foot technology offered by the Electra Bicycle Company. I also like their slogan: Official Bike of Nothing Official. But which model? Decisions. Decisions.
Mr. Smith and I made a visit to the bike shop in Keller, just to look around and kick the tires. They only had one Electra bike for us to look at in the cruiser category, and it was still in the box. There were no tires to kick! Apparently these bikes sell just about as quickly as they can get 'em assembled. Our salesperson promised us that they would have more to choose from, as they were gearing up their bike assembly. We went home with a catalog.
More research.
More questions.
One afternoon, Liesey and I test rode Electra cruisers at the friendly neighborhood bike shop. Yep, they managed to get a few Electras assembled for display on the sales floor. We tried out a fuchsia bike and a black (men's) cruiser. Although impressed, we were still not quite ready to make a purchase. A salesperson at the shop told us that we "should" be able to get whatever we wanted, when we were ready to roll.
We studied the manufacturer's website again and again.
We figure these bikes will be the last ones we purchase for our daughters, so we wanted to get it right.
After perusing the Electra bike catalog, the Smith girls researched the differences between the various models -- Verse, Ticino, Townie, Amsterdam, Cruiser, and Coaster. They finally narrowed it down and determined which bikes they REALLY, really wanted: Electra's Townie Original 21D in polished blue for Lou, and a Townie Original 7D in fuchsia for Millie Girl.
I called the bike shop and inquired about availability. It took well over 24 hours to get the answers to my questions. I guess they were busy, either building bikes or selling them to somebody else. Our plans to purchase two bicycles were derailed -- momentarily. The fuchsia bike we had seen/ridden at the store had just been sold, and they could not get another one. In fact, they were not able to get either bicycle in the preferred colors.
At this point, the girls still didn't know that their parents had shifted gears from the "We'll think about it..." position to the "Let's take action!" mode.
A quick Google search for authorized Electra dealers revealed 14 retailers within a 40 mile radius, so things were looking up.
I worked my way down the list of bike shops until I finally found both bikes in stock at the same store. We only needed to travel about thirty miles away to Plano. I was able to make the purchase online and arrange to pick up the bikes at the store, all ready to roll. Easy!
I didn't bother to tell the girls that I had found exactly what they were hoping for. I wanted there to be some element of surprise.
This bike shop was well-stocked. We felt like kids in a candy store, especially when it came to accessories for Electra bikes.
We called home as we were on our way back to Keller to confirm dinner plans, and the first comment was, "Where are you?! You both came up as unavailable when we searched for your your location on 'Find My Friends.'"
My response? "Oh, that's weird. We must've been in a dead spot when you checked."
I'm pretty sure we were at the bike shop in Plano when they were looking for us. :-)
Although our Thule rack holds four bikes, we could only tote one of the Townies on the back of the car, due to the shape of the frame. The second bike was stowed in the back of the car. We wondered if our youngest daughter would be happy for her sister, or if there would be disappointment, when she saw that there was only ONE bike loaded on the rack. And that it was blue, not fuchsia.
I went in the house and announced that we were home and that we needed a hand. The kids figured we had made a trip to Costco, so they were willing to follow us back out to the car to help with unloading groceries.
Much to Liesey's surprise, there was a teal colored cycle on the bike rack.
Yay!
Little sister was genuinely happy for her big sister -- no disappointment at all. I told Millie that there was a basket for her sister's bike in the back of the Audi, and asked her to get it out of the car.
Watch out for these biker chicks -- they've been known to ruffle a few feathers. HA!!!
